A Girl Cut in Two (French: La Fille coupée en deux) is a French drama and thriller film directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Ludivine Sagnier, François Berléand, and Benoît Magimel. The film was released in France on August 8, 2007 and a limited release in the United States beginning on August 15, 2008.

About the Story

The film revolves around two men who vie for a single young woman, Gabrielle Deneige. Gabrielle, a local weather woman, is in her twenties and lives with her mother, who works in a little bookstore. Charles Saint-Denis is a famed author who has just written a new book. Seeming to shy away from the public eye, he lives in the countryside of Lyon with his wife.

At a party after a television interview about his new novel, Charles first spies young Gabrielle, then attends a book signing in the bookshop where Gabrielle’s mother works. After a little flirting, Charles gives Gabrielle a copy of his book and an invitation for her to attend an auction with him. She agrees. The local scion of a pharmaceutical company, Paul Gaudens, enters the store and confronts Saint-Denis, then sees Gabrielle.

Paul invites her to dinner with him. She agrees to go. While they are at dinner, Charles meets with friends, one of whom speaks about his daughter dating a man Charles’ age, and how he handles the situation. Charles asks him about the auction on Saturday. The scene cuts to the exterior of the restaurant, where Gabrielle thanks Paul for the meal. He offers to take her home, but she indicates it isn’t far and that she’s on her scooter. Paul tells her she’s “amazing, honestly.” Gabrielle puts him off, telling him that she likes him, but not to pressure her. She walks to her motorbike and drives off. Paul shows he is unhappy at not getting what he wants. He spots a parking ticket on his car, snatches it off, and tosses it on the ground. The audience sees more and more that Paul is a spoiled rich kid with serious issues about getting what he wants.Read more…

A 2008 romance film adapted from a same name novel about a London-based Jordanian of Palestinian descent, Tala, who is preparing for an elaborate wedding. A turn of events causes her to have an affair and subsequently fall in love with another woman, Leyla, a British Indian.

I Can’t Think Straight is a 2008 romance film adapted from a same name novel about a London-based Jordanian of Palestinian descent, Tala, who is preparing for an elaborate wedding. A turn of events causes her to have an affair and subsequently fall in love with another woman, Leyla, a British Indian.

The movie is distributed by Enlightenment Productions. It was released in different theatres between 2008 and 2009. The DVD was released on 4 May 2009. The movie is directed by Shamim Sarif and stars Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth. The two actresses star in another movie with lesbian characters, The World Unseen, released in 2008.

About the Story

In the upper echelons of traditional Middle Eastern society, wealthy Christian Palestinians Reema and Omar prepare for the marriage of their visiting daughter Tala to Hani in Jordan. But back at work in London, Tala encounters Leyla, a young British Indian Muslim woman who is dating Tala’s best friend Ali. Tala sees something unique in the artless, clumsy, sensitive Leyla who secretly works to become a writer.

And Tala’s forthright challenges to Leyla’s beliefs begins a journey of self-awareness for Leyla. After a weekend getaway into the countryside, Tala and Leyla sleep together and the two women begin to fall in love. However, Tala’s own sense of duty and cultural restraint cause her to pull away from Leyla and fly back to Jordan where the preparations for an ostentatious wedding are well under way.

As family members descend and the wedding day approaches, the pressure mounts until Tala finally cracks and extricates herself. Back in London, Leyla is heartbroken but learns to break free of her own self-doubt and her mother’s expectations, ditching Ali and being honest with her parents about her sexuality. When Ali and Leyla’s feisty sister, Yasmin, help try to get Tala and Leyla together again, Tala finds that her own preconceptions of what love can be is the final hurdle she must jump to win Leyla back.

An American Carol is an American comedy film directed by David Zucker and starring Kevin Farley. In some other countries the film is known as Big Fat Important Movie. Presented from a conservative-leaning perspective, the film is a parody of liberal filmmaker Michael Moore that “lampoons contemporary American culture, particularly Hollywood.” It uses the framework of A Christmas Carol but moves the setting of the story from Christmas to Independence Day. The screenplay is written by Myrna Sokoloff and Zucker. The supporting cast includes Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Dennis Hopper, Trace Adkins, Gary Coleman, Jillian Murray and Leslie Nielsen. The film was released on October 3, 2008.

About the Story

Left-wing activist and filmmaker Michael Malone (Kevin Farley), a parody of Michael Moore, campaigns to end the celebration of the Fourth of July holiday. Malone holds pronounced anti-American views and truculently argues that America’s past and present are both offensive, and therefore should not be celebrated.

On the evening of July 3, Malone watches a speech from President John F. Kennedy and mistakenly interprets the speech to mean avoiding war at any cost. President Kennedy rises out of the television set, corrects Malone regarding the intent of the speech, and informs him that he will be visited by three spirits.

The following morning, Malone is visited by General George S. Patton (Kelsey Grammer), who shows him an alternate United States where slavery still exists because Abraham Lincoln chose not to fight the Civil War. Shaken but still unmoved, Malone is visited by the angel of death (Trace Adkins), who takes him to a future Los Angeles completely taken over by radical Islamists. He is then taken to the ruins of his hometown in Michigan, which has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb planted by Al Qaeda. In a mortuary, Malone learns that he will be killed in this attack, leaving nothing behind but his trademark hat and “big ass.”

Facing his death, Malone pleads for his life with the Angel, promising to change. However, all is not well after Malone’s revelation, for Aziz, a Middle Easterner he had interviewed, is actually a terrorist who will bomb a 4 July rally along with his underlings Ahmed and Fayed. However, when Fayed and Ahmed learn they are going to be detonated along with the planned bomb, they figure their slim chance of survival is by seeking out Malone.

Later, Malone arrives at an anti-Fourth of July protest rally and publicly renounces his former views. This triggers an outraged mob from which he is rescued, however, by American servicemen. Meeting up with Malone, Ahmed and Fayed defuse their own bomb, thus sparing the people at the anti-Independence Day rally and resulting in the capture of the terrorist Aziz. Safe inside a country music concert, the three are formally welcomed to “the real America” by Trace Adkins (this time as himself).

A reformed Malone then goes to a Navy base to see his nephew Josh off to the Persian Gulf. He tells Josh how very proud he is of him and promises to look in on his wife and family during his deployment. In the final scene, Malone now decides to make films he feel people would appreciate, as well as Fayed and Ahmed as part of the crew, who have been pardoned for foiling the bombing. Malone is last seen working on a biographical film about President Kennedy.

A group of high schoolers invite Mandy Lane (Amber Heard), a good girl who became quite hot over the summer, to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. While the festivities rage on, the number of revelers begins to drop quite mysteriously.

Mandy Lane. Beautiful. Untouched. High school royalty waiting to be crowned. Since the dawn of Junior year, men have tried to possess her. Some have even died in reckless pursuit of this 16 year-old Texas angel.

Chloe and Red invite Mandy out to Red’s family ranch for the weekend. Mandy sees it as an excellent opportunity to cement her new friendships. The boys see it as an opportunity to finally get with Mandy Lane. Driving across the Texas landscape, the kids begin to gently chip away at the wall that surrounds her. Joints are smoked. A keg is stolen off a beer truck. Pills are crushed to fine powder and inhaled. Mandy observes it all with the gentle interest of a foreign tourist. And they love her for it.

At the ranch, all the boys start to make their move – each one hoping to be the first to attain the unattainable Mandy Lane. However, as night falls and the booze, drugs, and hormones take over, things are said and advances made which can never be reversed.

Suddenly, sweet Mandy finds herself pit in a brutal struggle for survival against someone whose interest she has rejected. Forget reading, writing and arithmetic. In high school, learning to be yourself and not succumbing to peer pressure is the ultimate test. And this is one exam that Mandy is determined not to fail.Read more…

American Teen is the touching and hilarious Sundance hit that follows the lives of five teenagers – a jock, a popular girl, a heartthrob, an artsy girl and a geek – in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. We see the insecurities, the cliques, the jealousies, the first loves and heartbreaks, and the struggle to make profound decisions about the future.

Filming daily for ten months, filmmaker Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes, The Kid Stays in the Picture) developed a deep understanding of her subjects. The result is a film that goes beyond the enduring stereotypes of high school to render complex young people trying to find their way into adulthood.

Hannah Bailey is smart and beautiful, but a misfit in her high school. She is a liberal, atheist living in a traditional, Christian, conservative town and dreams of moving to California after graduation.

Colin Clemens is the star of the high school basketball team – and in Indiana, basketball is everything. Colin is under enormous pressure this year playing not only to make his town, his school, and his father proud, but for a college scholarship.

Jake Tusing is considered to be a nerd in high school. Though quite funny and charming one-on-one, he is painfully shy in group situations and crushed with self-doubt. In his senior year he vows that nothing will stand in the way of him finding a girlfriend. Megan Krizmanich is the student council Vice President and the youngest daughter of a prominent local surgeon, anxiously awaiting word from Notre Dame University admissions. Wealthy, pretty, smart and popular, she rules her high school – just don’t get on her bad side.

When Megan’s peers challenge her authority, she can’t help but take action, even if it means risking her future. Mitch Reinholdt is an attractive and charming Varsity basketball jock with a soft side. When he puts his social status on the line, avoiding his popular friends for dates with artsy Hannah Bailey, he strains to maintain his reputation while discovering a new side of himself.

With extraordinary intimacy and a great deal of humor, American Teen captures the pressures of growing up – pressures that come from one’s peers, one’s parents, and not least, oneself.

This hilarious coming-of-age story is based on the international best-selling series of books by the British author Louise Rennison, and follows the eccentric and irresistible Georgia Nicolson as she overcomes the trauma of being a teenager.

Georgia Nicolson is played by Georgia Groome. Alongside her playing fellow Ace Gang members are Eleanor Tomlinson as Jas, Georgia Henshaw as Rosie and Manjeeven Grewal as Ellen. Aaron Johnson, Sean Bourke, Alan Davies, Karen Taylor and T4’s Steve Jones (making his acting debut) also star.

Misunderstood by her “ancient” parents-but buoyed up by the love of her cat, Angus, and her bessie mates, the Ace Gang-Georgia Nicolson (Georgia Groome) struggles through life seeking out her two main desires: 1. To get a gorgeous sex-god as her boyfriend. 2. To throw the greatest 15th birthday party ever.

When handsome brothers Tom (Sean Bourke) and Robbie (Aaron Johnson) arrive at school, Georgia thinks her boyfriend dreams have been answered. But when she sees Robbie with her arch rival, Slaggy Lindsay (Kimberley Nixon), she devises a plan to show Robbie that she’s the mature, sophisticated girlfriend he deserves. Unfortunately Georgia’s plans – involving snogging lessons, dying her legs orange and stalking Slaggy Lindsay – don’t exactly run smoothly.

In addition her own romance problems, Georgia’s dad (Alan Davies) is given an amazing job opportunity in New Zealand. This leaves Georgia’s mum (Karen Taylor) open to the charms of builder Jem (Steve Jones), a George Clooney look-a-like who’s ancient (mid 30’s) but still a fittie. The worry over her parents’ marriage is a huge pressure on Georgia, who feels that the responsibility for holding the family together rests on her shoulders. In her quest to get Robbie and keep her family from splitting, Georgia transforms from a selfish girl into a young woman who’s grown beyond the valley of the fab and into the universe of marvy.Read more…

Set in 1882 in the Old West territory of New Mexico, city marshal Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his deputy and partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), have made their reputation as peacekeepers in the lawless towns springing up in the untamed land.

In the small mining community of Appaloosa, a ruthless, powerful rancher named Randall Bragg (Irons) has allowed his band of outlaws to run roughshod over the town. After the cold-blooded murder of Appaloosa’s city marshal, Cole and Hitch are hired to bring the murderer to justice. While establishing new authority with equal parts grit and guns, Cole and Hitch meet provocative newcomer Allison French (Zellweger), whose unconventional ways threaten to undermine their progress and to destroy the two lawmen’s decade-old partnership.

About The Production

I don’t kill people for a living, I enforce the law. Killing is sometimes a by-product. — Virgil Cole

When Ed Harris embarked on a family horseback-riding trip in 2005, he brought Robert B. Parker’s novel Appaloosa along for the journey. A character-driven tale about honor and camaraderie set against the backdrop of the Old West, the novel captured Harris’s attention.

“I was immediately drawn to the relationship between Cole and Hitch. After I read the first few scenes between these guys, I fell in love with their dialogue and their friendship,” says Harris. “These are two tough guys who’ve been riding together for more than 12 years and they just know each other. They don’t have to talk about their feelings necessarily, there’s an unspoken understanding between them. They’re very comfortable with one another and respect each other, and they have a great sense of humor together.”Read more…

“Australia” is an epic and romantic action adventure, set in that country on the explosive brink of World War II.

An English aristocrat inherits a ranch the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle driver to drive 2000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country’s most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.

Set in Australia on the explosive brink of World War II. In it, an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) travels to the faraway continent, where she meets a rough-hewn local (Hugh Jackman) and reluctantly agrees to join forces with him to save the land she inherited. Together, they embark upon a transforming journey across hundreds of miles of the world’s most beautiful yet unforgiving terrain, only to still face the bombing of the city of Darwin by the Japanese forces that attacked Pearl Harbor.

The Faraway Of The Faraway

An epic tale of transformation, love and adventure, AUSTRALIA unfolds on the continent that director Baz Luhrmann sees as the world’s last great frontier. “To the rest of the world, Australia is the faraway of the faraway,” he says. “There’s a great line in the beginning of `Out of Africa,’ when Karen Blixen finds out that her husband is having an affair and she says, `I’ve got to get away, I’ll go anywhere. Africa, Australia…well, maybe not Australia.’”

Luhrmann grew up in a small lumber town in northern New South Wales, where his family ran a farm, the local gas station and, for a short time, the movie theater. “The movie musical was a great childhood love of mine, but I was also a big fan of the historical epic,” he says. “Epics were the kind of movies that you would hear about for weeks before the films actually arrived, and every single person in town would go to see them. You can imagine the impression made on a small boy in rural Australia by films like `Lawrence of Arabia’ and `Ben Hur’ – big, romantic adventures set in distant, exotic locales where the landscape amplified the inner emotional journeys of the characters.”Read more…

Successful and single businesswoman Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) has long put her career ahead of a personal life. Now 37, she’s finally determined to have a kid on her own. But her plan is thrown a curve ball after she discovers she has only a million-to-one chance of getting pregnant. Undaunted, the driven Kate allows South Philly working girl Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) to become her unlikely surrogate. Simple enough…

After learning from the head of their surrogacy center that Angie is pregnant, Kate goes into precision nesting mode: reading childcare books, baby-proofing the apartment and researching top pre-schools. But the executive’s well-organized strategy is turned upside down when her Baby Mama shows up at her doorstep with no place to live.

An unstoppable force meets an immovable object as structured Kate tries to turn vibrant Angie into the perfect expectant mom. In a comic battle of wills, they will struggle their way through preparation for the baby’s arrival. And in the middle of this tug-of-war, they’ll discover two kinds of family: the one you’re born to and the one you make.Read more…

It is the not-too-distant future. Thousands of satellites scan, observe and monitor our every move. Much of the planet is a war zone; the rest, a collection of wretched way stations, teeming megalopolises, and vast wastelands punctuated by areas left radioactive from nuclear meltdowns.

It is a world made for hardened warriors, one of whom, a mercenary known only as Toorop (Vin Diesel), lives by a simple survivor’s code: kill…or be killed. His latest assignment has him smuggling a young woman named Aurora from a convent in Kazakhstan to New York City.

Toorop, his new young charge Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) and Aurora’s guardian Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) embark on a 6,000 mile journey that takes them from Eastern Europe, through a refugee camp in “New Russia,” across the Bering Straight in a pilfered submarine, then through the frozen tundra of Alaska and Canada, and finally to New York. Facing obstacles at every turn, Toorop, the killer for hire, is tested like never before, in ways he could never have imagined – as he comes to understand that he is the custodian of the only hope for the future of mankind. For the first time in his life, Toorop has to make a choice: to make a difference or walk away and save himself. Too bad it came on the day he died.Read more…